Meg Muñoz, a crime and intelligence analyst with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, works with photos, video and police reports to help solve crimes. / Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

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The Desert Sun

Police departments across the Coachella Valley are more often relying on technology-driven crime analysis to help curb burglaries, robberies, assaults and other common crimes — and predict where the next might occur.

Spurred by leaps forward in technology, the crime analysis profession has taken off in recent decades, and police say they’ve grown more reliant on the information.

“If we see that there’s an area that’s having a lot of crimes, whether it be burglaries, robberies … just an area of concern, we’ll create the map and we’ll give it to patrol,” Diaz said as she demonstrated the software. The patrol deputies then know “exactly what area needs a little more assistance.”

Muñoz and Diaz also check for nearby parolees and probationers and scan video surveillance footage to help identify suspects for possibly linked crimes.

“We have a birds-eye view. We’re looking at everything,” Muñoz said. “We’re another tool for patrol and investigations ... We can perhaps get a general idea of where there are trends happening or what may be coming in a certain area, what to expect.”

The Palm Desert department has had its Crime Analysis Unit since the early 1990s. The department doesn’t track the unit’s performance by arrests, but the analysts have been “absolutely invaluable” to gauge where crime is occurring and how to go after it, sheriff’s Sgt. Andrew Nielsen said. Often, the results of their work is seen when pervasive crime in a problem area they point out disappears.

Muñoz and Diaz were key, police said, in apprehending suspects in a series of brazen jewelry heists last year, including one at Leeds & Sons Fine Jewelers in Palm Desert. They couldn’t specify because the suspects are awaiting trial.

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The duo also helps analyze crime trends and statistics for the sheriff’s Thermal station, which covers La Quinta, Coachella and the unincorporated east valley, while that station’s lone analyst is on leave, according to Palm Desert police Lt. Bill Sullivan.

Crime analysis has grown in the last two decades to become central to police departments across the nation, said Susan Smith, incoming president of the Kansas-based International Association of Crime Analysts.

The association began in 1990 with 20 analysts and has since grown to more than 2,500 members, Smith said. She estimated there are some 3,500 analysts working in law enforcement departments across the U.S.

The Internet took off around the same time as the crime analysis profession. Spreadsheets and online mapping systems mean analysts no longer have to manually chart data by hand, Smith said.

“Researching and policing has become a science,” she added. “We can actually understand why one area is more problematic than another, and we can actually do something to fix it.”

However, some Coachella Valley police say their budgets prevent them from fully taking advantage of crime analysis like they once did.

“There is no crime analysis being conducted at this time, at least not in its former breadth. It is a labor-intensive discipline,” Cathedral City police Lt. Robinson said in an email.

The department is doing what it can to keep the analysis and intelligence flowing, but it can only do so much.

“What we are doing now is communicating more with one another between the two bureaus (patrol and detectives) to identify trends and suspects,” he said. “In certain instances, we will specifically look at crimes and data mine/compile info, but not nearly to the extent we did previously.”

In Desert Hot Springs, an intern previously served as a crime analyst for the police deparment, Interim Commander Ken Peary said. The staff now collectively uses a department system to crunch the data.

“The collaboration between our patrol staff and investigations staff is incredible and they share information amongst themselves,” he added.

The Indio and Palm Springs police departments each also employ one full-time crime analyst. Indio police have relied on an analyst for more than 10 years to work with the department’s detectives and special investigators, as well as to decide where to deploy patrol officers, spokesman Ben Guitron said.

“We don’t try to make it too public,” he added, because police don’t want local burglars, thieves and other criminals to get “ahead of the game.”

The analysts often exchange information with deputies.

“We have the map and we have the cluster, but they know the people,” Muñoz said.

“It’s like pieces to a puzzle ... and it’s not until those pieces come together that you can actually solve crimes,” she added. “It’s very important.”